Dig Through Time — Champions of Kamigawa

Today’s article travels back to the first set from everyone’s favorite Shinto-inspired block that we’re almost certainly never going to visit ever again: Champions of Kamigawa. This set introduced some much-beloved creature types like monk, samurai, and advisor. The set also introduced some legendarily bad mechanics: Arcane and Splice onto Arcane, Spirits and Soulshift. While those mechanics are widely regarded as bad, we did get Bushido and flip cards out of Kamigawa. Despite having a controversial frame, flip cards played in a design space that paved the way for the double-faced cards we all enjoy today. Perhaps the number one reason Kamigawa is so popular with EDH players is its theme legends. If it was a rare (or sometimes even uncommon) it was legendary, and so a lot of mono-colored commanders were born. Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Ghostly Prison, Sakura-Tribe Elder, the Spirit Dragon cycle, and other staple cards were all introduced in Champions of Kamigawa. Cards like these are famously good, but did other useful cards fall through the cracks? Oh, my goodness, yes! Let’s take a look.

Hey! I’m Squelching Here!

Squelchsees play in 167 decks, and is a useful and fun trick. It counters a fetchland or, after allowing a planeswalker to tick up to its ultimate, counter the walker’s activation, likely killing it. Is it quite as good as Disallow? No, but aside from Voidslime, what is? The fact that it draws you a card and only costs two to cast makes it a potentially worthwhile inclusion in a control or chaos slot.

Talrand, Sky Summoner runs Squelch in 36 decks, which is more than any other commander. The next top commander, Baral, Chief of Compliance, only has six decks that include Squelch. This card can just be goodstuff in the 99, or part of a dedicated control package. Either way, it’s not something your opponents will expect, and it’s fun to resolve. If you liked trying Rerout from my Ravnica article, give Squelch a go in your next brew.

Fear the Weaver

Reweavesees play in 139 decks, and is a pretty interesting spot-removal spell. If you’re not in white or green, it removes problem enchantments, just be careful that you don’t cheat something worse out. If you’re not in white or black it can permanently deal with a difficult creature, which is nice. Reweave even gets rid of problem lands at instant speed. It’s very unlikely that your opponent is going to polymorph out something scarier than the Cabal Coffers you force them to sacrifice. It has the potential to help or hurt whoever it targets, so be careful what you do with it.

Bone Daddy Warbucks

Nezumi Bone-Readeris a great little sacrifice outlet that sees play in just 278 decks. Perfect for when you want to take control of your opponent’s hands, this card lets you expend your tokens or low-value chumps for either card parity or advantage. It doesn’t give you the same pinpoint effect as Corpse Traders, but it also costs significantly less mana to cast and to activate. If you’re running Sheoldred, Whispering One, Balthor the Defiled, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, or some other reanimator-themed commander, it might even be better to target yourself with Nezumi Bone-Reader’s ability.

The Night Stalker

Night Dealingsis an excellent repeatable tutor that sees play in 265 decks. This is another card that I’m really surprised doesn’t see more play. I suppose it does make itself a big target, and it’s a big mana sink if you hope to activate it the turn it gets cast, but if can protect it, this card gets you anything you need from your deck again and again.

Soul Glad to Blast You

Soulblast is a finisher for decks that go tall or wide, and sees play in 169 decks. Blowing up your board isn’t a big deal if it ends the game by Flinging all of your creatures at one player’s face. Let me point out that it’s instant speed, so it doesn’t have to be a finisher. You can use it in response to a wrath effect to make the person wiping the board pay for their actions. Play it in a desperate ploy to kill the person resolving Craterhoof Behemoth or Triumph of the Hordes. Your other opponents will thank you for it. Really! This also gets around those pesky Propaganda and Dueling Grounds effects, for when you’re stalled out on combat and have nothing better to do.

Omnath, Locus of Rage plays this card the most at 39 decks. It must feel really good to Soulblast a board full of Omnath’s elementals for all those extra three-damage triggers. Some other top recommendations from EDHREC include Krenko, Mob Boss, Thromok the Insatiable, and Xenagos, God of Revels. If you often find yourself sitting on a hefty amount of creature power and want additional ways to weaponize that power, why not throw in a Soulblast?

Ride the Snake!

Kashi-Tribe Reaver sees play in 119 decks, and, like Voracious Cobra, is a rattlesnake card that happens to have “snake” as a creature type. Leaving it up as a blocker makes your opponents rethink whether they want to have their best attacker frozen out for the next turn. Not even creatures with vigilance get around the Reaver’s ability, since it taps them down; though Reconnaissance will still allow them to untap their creature after damage has been dealt.

Get Some Junkyo in the Trunk

Junkyo Bell sees play in 63 decks, and is a great way to take your strategy from wide to tall. Diversifying your strategy in terms of number of small creatures versus size of a single creature’s power can be a key component of closing out the game. I like running white-weenie swarm as much as the next guy, but sometimes your friend Paul is locking your Grenzo goblin tribal deck out of combat with a Silent Arbiter, and you just need to teach him a lesson with one really big goblin.

Imi Statue sees the most play in Brago, King Eternal at 4 decks. It’s not so much specifically good in any builds, as much as it’s generally good at gluing up an artifact combo-heavy meta. If you’re running into lots of artifact shenanigans, but don’t feel like picking up a Stony Silence consider trying this out.

The Action

This week, I thought I’d give Kresh the Bloodbraided a chance to highlight some of our tall/wide shenanigan cards. I built in a great deal of token support that comes together to throw out one or two very big punches to close out the game. I hope you found something you like today, and please check back again in a few weeks where we’ll dig through the dusty attic of another plane for forgotten treasures.

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Dean is a husband, father, writer, and long-time fan of Magic and gaming in general. He co-hosts the Commander Time! podcast with Nate Burgess and Patrick Sippola. Currently located in Rochester, NY; he loves playing with new people, so if you're ever in the area, shoot him a message.
Follow him on Twitter AGrubFellow, where he tweets daily using #dailyEDH.